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High School Film Nerds Wiki
Background High School Film Nerds (HSFN) is a YouTube channel run by a group of high school students that focuses primarily on movie reviews and movie-related topics. While they sometimes expand to reviews of older movies or reaction and prediction videos, most of the videos on the channel are reviews of recent movie releases. The channel was created in April 2017 by Josh Eliot, Bret Williams, and Molly Erwin, and currently has 20+ members. Structure A majority of the reviews on HSFN will feature a group of teenagers, mostly high schoolers, sitting at or around a couch in a hangout space. The group changes nearly every review, and the number of reviewers will usually range from 2-6. Seven is the highest number of people that has ever appeared in a review for HSFN (A Quiet Place review). The video length usually ranges from 6-12 minutes. While it has changed slightly over time, each review has a similar structure. Intro Scenes The videos will sometimes open with a parody of the plot, concept, or characters of the movie being reviewed. These parodies will sometimes only appear at the beginning of the review, but in the case of some videos, they will consistently appear throughout the video, usually when the moment being parodied is being discussed in the review. This concept of parodying movies was first introduced in the Spider-Man: Homecoming review. The Black Panther intro is the only intro to incorporate a mockumentary style. The intro features Bret and Dawson about to recreate a scene from Black Panther, only for Molly to point out the concern of having the characters played by two white boys, which causes Bret to run away crying. Molly has played many male characters in the intros, such as Baby Driver, Pennywise, and The Flash. Many of the intros begin with a shot of Bret running to the door of the pool house. This shot was first introduced in the review of The Emoji Movie. Intro Theme A 10-second intro theme was introduced to the channel at the beginning of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi review, and has appeared at the beginning of every group review since, and every video period since the Blockers review. The intro theme appears either at the very start of the review or immediately following the intro scene. Aesthetically, the intro has remained the same. The center of the frame features a series of posters of movies previously reviewed on HSFN that change every beat of the song. The posters have changed over time, but the final one is always the poster of the movie being reviewed. The sides of the frame play a series of videos of all the different Film Nerds, usually from the intro videos. Similarly to the posters, the videos have changed over time. Pre-Spoilers The group usually begins every review by simultaneously saying "hi," after which they all introduce themselves. One person then describes the plot of the movie, after which the group dives into their general thoughts on it, as well as any plot specifics they can discuss without spoiling it. Spoilers Before discussing parts of the movie that involve spoilers, the group gives a warning to viewers that haven't seen the movie to leave. A timecode appears at the bottom of the screen, indicating the point in the video where it's safe to avoid spoilers. Usually it leads straight to the final verdicts. In the review of Victoria & Abdul, a Spoiler Clock was introduced. It appears right after the spoilers warning, and gives the viewer five seconds to leave the video to avoid spoilers. In the Thoroughbreds review, a further spoiler warning was added, which appears at the bottom of the screen throughout the entire spoilers section. This was added after someone commented on the Coco review that spoiler warning needs to be in the title of the videos. Instead of putting Spoilers in the title of every video, a warning was placed over any section where spoilers were given. Alex Cry Meter Videos featuring Alex Simpson always incorporate the Alex Cry Meter, a scoring chart created by Alex in which she ranks how much she cried during the movie on a scale from 0 to 10 (0 to La La Land, as it appears in the video). This segment was conceived by Alex after she stated in the review of The Glass Castle that she cries in every movie she sees, and it appeared for the first time in the Battle of the Sexes review. Alex has explained that the reason the cry meter is ranked 0 to La La Land is because she "cried in the first 30 seconds of La La Land and then continuously cried throughout the rest of the movie." The highest rating Alex has ever given on the Alex Cry Meter is an 8, which she gave to Coco. Most of the scores on the cry meter recently have ranged from 0 to 2. Alex has said herself that she feels like she's becoming less emotional during movies, thus resulting in the lower scores. Final Verdicts Once the group has discussed everything they wanted to discuss, they go to final verdicts. They are usually introduced with a five second clip of a maroon background with the words "Final Verdicts" shooting into and out of the frame, while the Inception fog horn plays. When final verdicts begin, each person in the review will individually sum up their final thoughts on the movie and then give the movie a score from 0 to 10. Once everyone has given their final verdict, Josh will average the results and reveal the overall final verdict of the movie. The final verdicts are usually given in a line from one side of the room to the other, but there have been exceptions (Cooper Frank always wants to give his final verdict last, regardless of where he is sitting). The scoring process has also expanded with time. In the past, the ratings have either been a solid number or a number with a 0.5, but in the review of A Quiet Place, new members Caleb and Kelan gave it a 9.8, and Alex gave it a 7.8, thus proving that any decimal can be used to give a final verdict. The ratings are usually solid numbers though. After giving the overall final verdict, one of the long-lasting Film Nerds will address the audience and close the review, usually saying "What did you think of (movie title)? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Comment below to let us know!" The video will usually end with the entire group shouting "Peace out!" while doing a peace sign. This was started by just Bret early on in the channel's history, but has expanded over time to include everyone in the video. In reviews featuring Cooper, he would usually end the review by saying "If you comment, I'll..." and then proceed to say something unpleasant, usually something that related to the plot of the movie. It was later picked up by other Film Nerds, who began saying it themselves whenever Cooper wasn't in a review. This has gradually faded over time, and hasn't appeared in any videos recently. Post-Final Verdicts Ever since the Victoria & Abdul review, a post-video closing has appeared after the video, where someone from the review (usually a relatively new person) will thank the viewer for watching, and then remind them to subscribe and watch HSFN's last video. The HSFN theme usually plays over this segment. Members There are currently 22 members of High School Film Nerds. While some have either retired or had only minor appearances, this is a list of everyone that has appeared in a High School Film Nerds video. * Cole Deaver * Luke Deaver * Jaylen Diller * Cameron Dose * Abby Eliot * Josh Eliot * Molly Erwin * Caleb Foral * Cooper Frank * Max Hall * Bethany Harris * Daria Harris * Kysar Hunt * Paige Lebs * Kelan Owen * Liberty Parker * Dawson Royse * Alex Simpson * Harry Simpson * Joey Smith * Lauren Timbrook * Bret Williams Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Add one below! Category:Browse